Date of Award
5-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
Program
Creative Writing (MFA)
First Advisor/Chairperson
Lynn Domina
Abstract
This Thesis is divided into five main parts. The first is a loose introduction followed by a more organized four main “acts” broken into three-four chapters each. This research was spawned by spawned by unsated curiosity regarding the many abandoned homes along the roads and highways of the Upper Peninsula. As time went on, more aspects of the Upper Peninsula’s history (and my interaction with it) became attached and intertwined with the material I work with here. There are currently an estimated seven-hundred ghost towns in the Upper Peninsula. My aim in this was to determine what the “make or break” factors were for the towns and cities that exist today in contrast to the places that exist no longer. This thesis is written in a gray area between academic historical research and reflective creative non-fiction and travel writing. It is an exploration of the space between sterile analysis and the inescapable human component of any research or argument. Within this text I go on a journey across the Upper Peninsula in search of answers to a question for which I could not find answers. I take my readers along with me for that journey and share with them the steps and missteps that I took along the way. This work is organized into fifteen main chapters: one per each of the fifteen counties of the Upper Peninsula.
Recommended Citation
Tanis, Zane E., "GHOST PENINSULA" (2024). All NMU Master's Theses. 849.
https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/849
Access Type
Open Access
Justification for Restricting Access
I would like to publish this text as a book in the near future. However, additional work will be needed to format this text into something more akin to a chapbook. As such, an embargo is necessary. An Embargo will allow me to seek publication for this work. Without it, publication will be difficult if not impossible. Thank you for your time and consideration.